With
the Council meeting that will decide the future of Chartfield School
looming, campaigners to save the school have been stepping up their
efforts to save the school. The issue has attracted national interest
with the Times featuring the school in a two page article. This was
followed up by a series of supportive letters in the paper including
one from Tony Colman MP.

Samantha
Battersby of the Chartfield Action Group said, "The council vote
on 20th January so we need all the help we can get."
Chartfield Parents Action Group was founded by parents, governors
and friends of Chartfield School in Putney in December 2002. This
was in response to the “Planning for Inclusion” document published
by Wandsworth Borough Council at that time with the proposal to close
the school and move the children to either other special schools or
integrate them into mainstream education. Parents believe this plan
is short-sighted and will have a detrimental effect on the pupils
at Chartfield and those that will be denied the opportunity to attend
in the future.

Chartfield
is a secondary special needs school, in an idyllic part of Putney,
and has been there since 1960. At present they've around 100 pupils
who come to them mostly from Wandsworth with some from the adjacent
LEAs. They're designated as a delicate school and the pupils are those
who may have specific learning needs such as dyslexia, language disorders,
Aspergers Syndrome, medical needs such as epilepsy or may simply need
a smaller learning environment for this stage in their education.